Bad Pilots

IN THEORY, watching and discussing MILF Manor is a side-splitting romp full of memes and hilarious banter. IN PRACTICE, watching and discussing MILF Manor is an awkward, borderline nauseating experience that plumbs the depths of reality television and highlights the most grotesque fascinations of society at large. GILF (guest I'd like to...) Sasha Kalra helps us get through it. 

Hello Wisonsin!!! We were skeptical when Netflix announced they were bringing back (most) of the original cast from That 70s Show for That 90s Show, but it turns out it's not all bad — just don't talk about That 80s Show. Returning guest Katie Brioux joins us to discuss what works and doesn't work about the much anticipated reboot, how people weren't nice in the 90s, and we take a Buzzfeed quiz to determine what kind of 90s kid we were. (Also the thumbnail is of Aidan as a kid wearing a Kurt Kobain shirt while cutting his first communion cake — can't get more 90s than that!)

We're back! We're also really late! Is it still kosher to release a year-end countdown in late January? Who cares, we're doing it anyway. Bad Pilots is back babyyyy!! Please enjoy this rambling discussion in which we recap our favorite TV series of 2022 before digging into Metacritic dot com's annual top 10 worst shows of the year, including: First Kill, Monarch, The Terminal List, The Ultimatum, and many more.

When the 2020 Lizzie McGuire reboot at Disney+ went awry due to "creative differences", Hilary Duff took her talents to another reboot: How I Met Your Father. Special guests Will Reid and Jorge Vasconez join us to discuss the surprisingly charming (and far less problematic) spiritual successor to HIMYM. Also discussed: Selena Gomez's celebrity kidney transplant and a runner who got caught cheating in a marathon in the most dumb way possible.

It's American Idol from bizarro world — a singing competition show that aims to find the worst singer in America. Fittingly, our special guest is Kyle Wildfern, a musician and member of rap collective, Waycool. Together, we pick apart what is probably the most mean spirited show we've watched on Bad Pilots so far. We also discuss our favorite music conspiracy theories.

Arguably the worst part about Donald Trump's presidency was when he unwittingly inspired Greg Daniels and Steve Carrell to collaborate on Space Force, a sadly unfunny stab at satirizing the newly created military branch of the same name. Special guest Alessia Musso blasts off with us as we hurtle toward the final frontier in search of jokes.

We're back! It's been another trip around the sun, which can only mean one thing: more bad TV (also an increasingly dire pandemic with no end in sight, rampant climate change mercilessly and indiscriminately laying waste to communities everywhere, and the alarmingly rapid/dumb collapse of western democracy). So make yourself a hearty cocktail and join us on the couch for another annual round up of the 10 worst new shows to premiere in the past year! Also please forgive the intermittent rattling sound—the microphone wasn't fully secured to the stand.

Trick or Treat! Halloween is upon us and that means Halloweens specials. We countdown our top 5 picks for scariest moments in TV. Highlights include: kids shows that were way scarier than they had any right to be, the X-Files episode that was pulled by FOX for being too disturbing, Dan's bizarre midnight walk, and the time Aidan thought he witnessed a cult ritual.

The Hilarious House of Frightenstein is a gleefully twisted kids show responsible for terrorizing generations of children and stoners alike throughout the 70s and beyond. All 100+ episodes of the horror-themed series were shot in Hamilton, Ontario, in the span of just 9 months — and it shows. Special guest Quincy Raby joins us on a journey back in time, looking at schlocky, (probably) coke-fuelled basic cable programming.

After Wesley Snipes but before Mahershala Ali, Kirk Jones (aka Sticky Fingaz) donned the black leather trench coat to play Blade on Spike TV's uninspired small screen adaptation of the hit comic book series. Special guest and fellow Blade fan, Yusef Dualeh joins us to talk about Marvel adaptations, the pros and cons immortality, and internet vampire poetry.

What do you get when you take one of the most iconic slasher movie franchises of all time, strip it of personality, inject it with generic YA tropes that perpetuate rather than subvert, while also adding as many cold cut sandwiches as possible for no discernible reason? This. You get this. Horror movie junkie Michelle Shelderup joins us to critique Netflix's 2015 TV adaptation of the popular Scream franchise. We forgot to mention this, but they also totally ruined Ghostface's mask.

SpooOOOoooky szn is upon us! For the entire month of October, we'll be looking at spooky bad pilots, kicking things off with A&E's attempt to capitalize on the success of their flagship paranormal series, Ghost Hunters, with a similar yet far worse imitation: Paranormal Cops. Post production supervisor and horror buff Mark Ellis joins us to discuss a show that answers the question: what if extras from The Sopranos had their own ghost hunting show?

William Shatner is 90 years old! Wild, right?? That means he was 80-ish when he made 2010's forgettable Twitter-inspired sitcom, Shit my Dad Says (or $#*! My Dad Says, since CBS is squeaky clean). Fittingly, our special guest this week is none other than Dan's father & longtime television critic, Bill Brioux. We discuss the role that professional critics have in the cultural conversation, how Bill inspired Dan and Aidan to start Bad Pilots, and William Shatner's incredible cover of Pulp's classic Britpop hit, Common People.

Sigmund Freud is shaking. Back in 2004, MTV created one of the most disturbing shows of all time: a reality dating series in which people go on dates with moms who are trying to set them up with their children. The rumor that this abomination is in fact scripted makes it all that much more disturbing. Luckily, we have special guest Laura Holtebrink to help keep us sane.

Neo Yokio is a Netflix anime and also quite possibly the most unlikely intersection of top-notch Hollywood talent to ever collaborate on a project. It was created Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig and features the voices of Jaden Smith, Jude Law, Susan Sarandon, Desus & Mero, Jason Schwartzman, and Richard Ayoade. It's also pretty boring. Or is it? Special guest Terry Obeng takes the stand to defend Neo Yokio's honor.

By its ninth and final season, Scrubs was basically on life support. But why? Why do sitcoms like The Office, That 70s Show, Two and a Half Men, Community, and so many others continue to run even after members of their core cast have departed for (usually) bigger and better projects? Video editor Sam Blake joins us as we go under the knife to figure out where Scrubs went wrong. Also discussed: Dan & Aidan share some gross medical stories. You can just skip those parts.

When VH1 launched their "Celebreality" programming block in 2005, they kicked off what we here at Bad Pilots would consider to be worst era of television history — a period saturated with exploitative reality series starring D-list celebrities trading in the last of their cultural currency for a few bucks. But hey, we also got some pretty sweet gifs out of it. Filmmaker and trash TV lover Jamie Hurcomb joins us for Rock of Love, a Bachelor-style dating show starring former Poison frontman, Bret Michaels.

This one needs no explanation. Not because it's super famous—but because the title of the show is also quite literally  the premise. "Are You Hot? The Search for America's Sexiest People" is very much a product of its time (2003), a post American Idol primetime landscape in which networks were scrambling to find the next reality hit, however base it may be. Special guest and known hottie, Eddie Majnemer, helps us digest this nauseating shit-show.

No show has been recommended with the caveat "but you should skip the first two seasons" more than Parks and Recreation. While we may remember it now as one of the most beloved and enduring sitcoms of the 2010s—with one of the most impressive ensemble casts ever assembled—it certainly didn't start out that way. Special guests Ally Cabrera-Aragon and Mark Foster join us as we take a sobering look at the NBC classic's awkward start.

Sandra Lee is perhaps the most overlooked and utterly fascinating celebrity chef to come from the Food Network. Anthony Bourdain once called her cooking "a war crime on TV". You may also recognize her from the now infamous "2 shots of vodka" meme. Off screen, she's equally controversial.  Aunty Sandy dated New York governor Andrew Cuomo for over a decade. Special guest & YouTube baker, Lauren McGowan, joins us as we chart Sandra Lee's unlikely rags to riches story. DISCLAIMER: preparing and eating any of Sandra Lee's recipes WILL result in immediate cardiac arrest—do not attempt.